Bhubaneswar: Teams from SAI International School and NIT Rourkela won the junior and senior segments of the second edition of Mettle Meet, the quiz competition being organised annually by the first homegrown English daily Orissa POST, here, Tuesday. They bagged the grand prize of Rs1 lakh in their respective segments. Ravenshaw Junior College and AIIMS Bhubaneswar emerged the first runners up while Saint Joseph’s and KIIT University were adjudged the second runners up in their respective segments. They took home cheques for Rs 50,000 and Rs25,000 respectively.
The winning teams comprised Pranav Manie, Tanmoy Panigrahi, Sameer Kumar Patro and Akarsh Kumar Das (juniors) and Prathamesh Dash, SK Wasim Sajjad, Dishant Nihar, Swayambodha Mohapatra(seniors). They were thrilled about winning at the event which comprised several gruelling rounds of quizzing and involved 45 teams in the preliminaries — 20 junior teams and 25 senior teams in all. Finals were held at Hotel Swosti Premium April 18.
Last year, in its inaugural edition, Mettle Meet featured 18 teams with no separate segments for juniors and seniors. College of Engineering and Technology (CET) had won the quiz with KIIT University and Ravenshaw College finishing second and third respectively.
The second edition evoked interest from several more institutions compared with the inaugural event and 45 teams competed in the preliminaries — 20 junior teams and 25 senior. Sixteen teams, eight junior teams and as many senior teams made it to the final. Quizmaster Venkatesh Srinivasan of Nexus Consulting tested the mettle of teams with tricky questions that covered a rainbow of subjects. While SAI International powered through to a massive lead after opening with a negative score, the quiz for seniors was far more competitive and each round was keenly fought. At the end of the first round, the teams were separated by narrow margins. The lead was extended in the second round but the excitement continued throughout to take the event to a photo finish. The event was supported by Xpose.